Protest enters its 16th day, traffic on borders affected

At Singhu, Tikri, Chilla, and Ghazipur borders, protesters spent their day cooking and distributing food at langars (community kitchen), delivering speeches or putting up posters and raising slogans against the farm laws.

Farmers continued to camp at Delhi’s borders for the 16th straight day on Wednesday, to protest against the Centre’s new farm laws, leading to partial or complete closure of the border points.

A volunteer sprays chemical disinfectants at Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border during the ongoing protest against new farm laws in Ghaziabad. (Sakib Ali /Hindustan Times)

At Singhu, Tikri, Chilla, and Ghazipur borders, protesters spent their day cooking and distributing food at langars (community kitchen), delivering speeches or putting up posters and raising slogans against the farm laws.

All seven border points of Delhi — Singhu, Tikri, Auchandi, Jharoda, Piao Maniyari, and Mangesh in outer and south-western parts of the city and Chilla — have been shut since farmers from northern states laid a siege to demand repeal of the new laws.

Since the border remained completely blocked, traffic continued to suffer in the city, as it has since November 24. Delhi traffic police said in an advisory, “Singhu, Auchandi, Piao Maniyari, Mangesh borders are closed. Available open borders to Haryana are following borders – Daurala, Kapashera, Badusarai, Rajokri NH 8, Bijwasan, Bajghera, Palam Vihar and Dundahera borders.”

The protest site at Ghazipur border also remained peaceful on Wednesday.

The protesters on Wednesday continued to block one of the four carriageways of Delhi-Meerut expressways while traffic on other two lanes remained normal throughout the day. “We do not want to cause any inconvenience to the general public. Who would like to leave their homes and live on the roads? But our cause is important. We need to fight for it,” said Joginder Singh, a farmer from Muzaffarnagar.

At the Chilla border (Delhi-Noida) link road the farmers cleared one carriageway around 5.30 am allowing the vehicles to move into Noida from Delhi. The protesting groups at this border also remained peaceful and number of farmers remained low.